Monday, December 24, 2007

Christmas in Texas 2007 part 2

The Thomas Clan got together over at mom and dad's house a week early this year. It worked out well because we got to spend time together like every year, but then we could go to our own houses to celebrate Christmas with our own kiddos. 13 cousins, 8 adults and 2 grandparents!Thomas and Anders couldn't be here this year, but SANTA did!!! Corin, Joseph and CJ met Santa at the door. Mei Li was intimidated and decided to cry and let daddy hold her. Ying Li sat in her highchair with a puzzled look. Hannah and Mia were brave and told Santa what they wanted. Grandma and Papa did another great job of picking out super gifts for the kiddos.Of course everyone talks at the same time and it is total chaos most of the time- except when Uncle Joe is explaining the rules of the grab bag heheheUncle Joe made everyone taste some RETCHID tasting jelly beans. Aunt Jody prompted me to take a rare photo of uncle Joe drinking a beer!

I love the look on Corin's face in the one photo of the medium age kiddos.If you look closely, you can see April cracking up when Joseph picked out a gift that was a big red leather bag with matching body wash etc...he clearly was surprised and wanted to trade ASAP.There was a three way tie between Jake, Grandma and Papa as to who slept the most this Christmas- heheheJann tried to bribe Santa but Grandma was there to keep him honest.Ying Li is not quite sure what to think of all this. Here is Papa trying to tell Santa he was actually good this year!Chase is used to avoiding geting tackled, but the girls tried their best to use him as a human hurdle. We got to watch his football highlights DVD- he's an awesome quarterback and Mei Li thinks he hung the moon!Doesn't Grandma look like Mrs. Clause?We tried to get photos of all the little ones on the couch and we came close...Poor Chase, that's the face of a person eating either a rotten egg jelly bean, or the vomit flavor- if you can call it that!Overall, it was wonderful to get together to share so many memories, especially when the kiddos are so small.Merry Christmas- we are blessed beyond all dreams.